Shopping

Sydney and regional cities and towns in NSW offer a wide range of choices for shoppers:

* Supermarkets sell fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, frozen foods, canned goods, bread, paper products, stationery, personal needs and some non-prescription medicines. Many supermarkets have extended shopping hours and are open late at night each day of the week.

* Markets sell a wide variety of new and second-hand goods. There are a number of weekend markets, and you may be able to bargain at some stalls. Some well-known food and clothing markets in Sydney are:
# Paddy's Markets in Haymarket and Flemington
# The Rocks Markets
# Glebe Markets
# Bondi Markets
# Balmain Markets
# Sydney Fish Markets

* Second-hand goods, from household items to motor vehicles, are advertised in various online marketplaces such as Gumtree (www.gumtree.com.au) or eBay (www.ebay.com.au). People may also hold 'garage sales' at their homes to sell personal second-hand items and will usually advertise the date and time in local newspapers.

Most stores open from 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Saturday, with the exception of Thursday when trading hours are usually 9:00am to 9:00pm. Shops in the Central Business District and major suburban shopping centres open from 10:00am to 4:00pm Sunday.

Almost all shops accept major credit cards or debit (EFTPOS) cards.

In Australia, most items sold in stores are sold at a fixed, marked price. However, there may be some room to negotiate price on higher-priced items (e.g. furniture or electrical goods), if goods are second-hand or are sold at markets and you are paying cash.